So my sister is a big sewing person, and I'm a big knitter, but I'm also interested in sewing. One thing that I've wanted to do for a long time is knit a fitting garment, but I have a fear of doing so. What I was curious about is whether one can knit the pieces of a sewing project according to their patterns (so what you would normally cut fabric into, you would knit) and then seam them together? I thought it would work initially, but, then I thought how you have to trim the fabrics after seams, and put zippers, etc. So it might be an overly complicated route if it even worked. Any thoughts as to whether it would work?

With knitting you ccan work the shaping as you go. Many sweaters have waist shaping where nip in at the waist, a lot of them you shape the armhole with decreases, and necklines too. Trim can be sewn on, some might be knitted in, and cardigans have zippers - the front edges would be sewn under and zippers put in.

I've seen clothing that was crocheted using sewing patterns, and they are pretty neat! In fact, an old Crochet! magazine has a tutorial about this. If you're interested in which issue, let me know, and I'll hunt it down for you. I know you're interested in knitting, but the information in this article still might prove helpful.

A couple of things to think about when knitting to a sewing pattern--make sure you allow for enough (but not too much) ease because knitted fabric behaves differently than regular fabric. Also, your knitting seams probably won't need to be as wide as those for a regular sewn garment. Additionally, remember that certain stitch patterns tend to stretch in different directions. So inserting the right knitting stitch pattern in the right place is essential if you don't want, say, a droopy skirt or a stretched out waistband.

Sweater Design in Plain English by Maggie Righetti has some very helpful information about the ways and means of knitted fabric OR you could just do up a library of swatches and find out for yourself how they behave!

And lastly, Joan McGowan-Michael (whiteliesdesigns.com) has some knitted/sewn garments. Well, she at least has one that I know of in Creative Knitting magazine July 2012 issue. Oh, wait, the article says she has more such garments in a book called Knitting Lingerie Style.

Sure it's possible. If you pick a pattern meant for knit fabric of about the same weight to begin with, or design with that in mind, it might work better. You may be able to do away with zippers, or you may be able to use a knitted zipper opening or even a steek (given the right yarn and stitching.) If you want to use a bulky yarn on a pattern meant for relatively thin fabric, you might want to think about the way that will affect drape and so on, so you don't start an Eisenhower jacket and end up with a maxi coat because of the weight

I have also knit a square for a very small pattern for a child for a sewing project, then transferred the pattern onto the square and used a very small stitch to stitch it together and then cut off the excess.